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there was NO blockade fleet off the US coast in LT timescales - when the war first broke out the British Caribbean squadron did maintain a close patrol off the US coast in order to catch any German ships trying to escape back to Germany - but this was withdrawn following US protests in OTl long before the LT timescale kicks in.

reflagging - yes the French position is well known.

But the proposition here is that a company would be set up specifically to circumvent the Hague conventions protecting belligerent trading capabilities - if it were that simple then it would have been done and all the Hague conventions are a waste of time and effort.

Salamis incident - doesn't make the UK look bad, it makes Bethlehem steel look like a business that made a product that they would not get paid for so they looked for an alternative buyer - they approached the UK, not the other way around.
Sinking the blockade fleet - putting aside the 'blockade fleet' part - if I were the US then the fact that Germany showed that it could project effective naval power to offshore New York and land raiding parties would be a bigger worry (but hey, this is not my story) - especially given their newly 'proven' prowess in naval combat.
Blue/Fox - like any journalist, the story takes on the spin the author wishes.

The Monroe doctrine based around nothing in the western hemisphere without US 'agreement' has just been tossed into the bin by the EG action - Germany has just proved that it can and will act in its own interest within US waters, not only that but using US territory and waters to further its own political ends. That it can send a small fleet across the Atlantic in secret from an almost landlocked sea and across one of the busiest pieces of ocean. It has also shown that it is willing to provoke public opinion by landing a raiding party in the East coast - 'just how big a raid could it do and against whom' would be the question that the serious newspapers will be asking - and when was the last time 'that' question came up in the US public opinion?

The cooler heads of the US government and military ought to be tearing their hair out and not succumbing to the 'gosh, look what a magnificent performance they did' stories from the newspapers.

Halifax/Bermuda - the RN has been operating in those waters since long before the US existed, and barring the WoI, 1812 and blockade runners during the US civil war, the 'relationship' has only improved (slowly) over the preceeding 100 years.

If I can misquote the New York Times headline during Victoria's diamond jubilee "we are a part of this Greater Britain that seems destined to guide this world" - 'guide' is the wrong word, but the 'greater britain' is the important point in the quote.